Thursday, May 29, 2008

Okay, I sat down for 10 minutes, tried to wrap my head around all that had happened and how I felt about it, and now it's time for the for-real review. "Lost" season four finale spoilers coming up just as soon as I play some chess...

Like I said above, I'm still processing even as I write this (because I know I'm not going to be able to sleep until at least I finish this review), and I think the first thing to do is to chart the location and status of everyone, as best I can figure, at the end of this whole deal.

In hiding: Desmond, Penny, maybe Lapidus (though he could just be kicking it in the Caribbean again, assuming he's too small a fish for Widmore's people to go after)

On the island: Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Charlotte, Richard and the Others, probably Rose and Bernard (Rose was chiding Miles moments before we saw Faraday load up a raft filled with redshirt Lostaways, and I doubt Bernard would've left without her), potentially other redshirts (though their ranks are running pretty low at this point; the freighter explosion was like the "Lost" equivalent of the Moldavian Massacre)

Dead in 2004: Michael, Keamy and his mercenaries

Dead in 2007: Locke (aka Jeremy Bentham, the mysterious man in the coffin from "Through the Looking Glass")

Location known, status unknown: Claire and Christian (who are on the island but may be the walking dead)Maybe dead, maybe lost at sea, maybe back on the island: Jin (who was on deck and could have miraculously jumped clear of the explosion), plus Faraday and the redshirts on his raft (and if any or all of these people weren't absorbed in the island-disappearing effect, then they're kinda screwed, as Penny's boat obviously didn't find them)

So now that we have that mostly cleared up, I find myself looking forward to season five more than I do reliving this conclusion to season four. At the risk of sounding like a total hypocrite -- considering how often over the years I've pounded my shoes against a table and demanded answers from Lindelof and Cuse -- "There's No Place Like Home" (all three parts) played fair with the audience 100 percent, answered most of the questions raised by "Through the Looking Glass" and then "The Beginning of the End," explained how the Oceanic Six got off the island, why they're lying, etc., etc., etc... and yet, as I did with the answer-laden "Cabin Fever," I feel ever so slightly disappointed by all of this.

Lindelof likes to talk about how they've set themselves up for failure, that the answers people have cooked up in their heads about Smokey, and the numbers, and all the show's other mysteries, will invariably seem cooler than what the show itself eventually reveals. And there may be something to that in my reaction here, but I don't think so. I think that the way Cuse and Lindelof structured this season and the Oceanic Six story at the heart of it, things were going to have the feel of inevitability by the end of it. By this point, we'd been given so many clues and nuggets of information about the Six's escape, the cover story, etc., that much -- but not all -- of "There's No Place Like Home" was largely taken up with filling in the remaining gaps in the story, like how Sun made it off the freighter but Jin didn't, the origin and motivations for the Oceanic Six lie (about which I will have more to say below), the identity of the guy in the coffin, etc. This episode reminded me in some ways of the "Dexter" season two finale, where the plot mechanics of that otherwise-thrilling season brought us to a finale that could only end one way, and which therefore didn't seem quite as special as what preceeded it. Until this season, the quality curve for "Lost" -- both within each episode and within each season -- has been an inverse bell curve, with the best stuff tending to come at the very beginning and, especially, the very end. I loved the hell out of season four, but I'd rank all three parts of "There's No Place Like Home" well behind "The Constant," "The Economist," "The Beginning of the End" and "Confirmed Dead," to name just four.

Which isn't to say I disliked the episode, or that it dashes all the optimism I've had about the series ever since "Through the Looking Glass," or that it makes me any less crazy about having to wait until early 2009 to see what happens next. I was just, based on how much I dug this season and how mind-blowing the show's finales usually are, a bit let down.

But there was still a ton of good stuff here, most of it outside the plot mechanics of the Oceanic Six stuff.

Start with the completely unexpected, completely tear-jerking, completely fabulous Desmond and Penny reunion. Did anybody see that coming this early in the series? Anybody? Screw the Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Juliet stuff (which, with Juliet and a shirtless Sawyer left on the island, is sure to be a full-on quadrangle by the start of next season); this is the true epic love story of "Lost," and it was a moment as well-earned as it was surprising. Yet as awesome as it was to see the dumbfounded look on Penny's face (even though she knew where to look for Desmond, she didn't honestly expect to find him that easily) or the joy on Desmond's, I have two separate yet equal concerns for these two: 1)That, having been granted their happy ending and been sent into hiding by Jack, they now disappear from the series for long stretches, at least until Ben can find them to make good on his promise to Widmore; or 2)That, having seemingly been granted their happy ending two seasons before the show's over, one or both of them is doomed.

Or consider yet another edition of Sayid Jarrah: Breakdance Fighter. Seriously, they need to have Sayid beat people up with his feet at least three or four times a season, because it's always splendid, as was the entire fight sequence with Keamy and the mercs, from Kate running towards the chopper right up to Richard shooting him in the back and, like the Libyans in "Back to the Future," not thinking to check for a bulletproof vest.

Or, for that matter, there was the entire sequence with Keamy dying, the chopper running out of fuel, and people scrambling on and off of the freighter. As I've said many times in the past, for all that we like to dwell on the mysteries, this show is at its best when it's about the characters and their emotions, and that sequence was packed with great character beats: the realization that Locke, in spite of his obsession with protecting the island at all costs, still cares about the survival of Jack and the rest; the look of pure happiness on Michael's face (the first such expression he's shown since before Tom Friendly kidnapped Walt) at learning Sun's good news; Hurley again feeling guilty about his weight as the chopper began to plunge, and Sawyer deciding once again to sacrifice himself for the sake of his friends; Sun screaming for Jin (whose death I don't want to believe in; it's enough that Sun believes he's dead); and the eerie appearance of Christian, currently acting as Jacob's proxy (and therefore the island's), to tell Michael it was finally okay for him to die, because he had served his purpose to the place.

Now, when Locke first broached the idea of lying to the outside world with Jack, I rolled my eyes at his logic, and at the idea that Jack would buy into it. Jack cares as much about protecting the island and its secrets as I care about Jack's love life or his tattoos. But by the time they were on the raft and the boat was approaching, it made more sense. First, he knows (or hopes) that at least some of the Lostaways are still on the island, and he finally appreciates just how obsessed and deadly are the people who faked the Oceanic Six crash and financed Keamy and company. The lie is to protect whoever's left behind on the island (which wasn't a factor when Locke first discussed it, as Jack assumed everybody but Locke would get off just fine), but it's also to protect the Six. So long as they maintain this lie that's in some way consistent with the lie that Widmore and his people created, it becomes a mutually assured destruction scenario: Widmore can't go after the Six, because the Six are playing along in a very public fashion.

(That said, I still don't understand all the details of the lie, which they had a week on Penny's boat to craft. Kate as the heroine of the crash and as Aaron's mother is for the benefit of making Kate look good when the time came for her to stand trial, but what about that business of three other people -- identified, in the expanded version of the press conference scene from Part 1 that ABC showed immediately before the finale, as Boone, Charlie and Libby -- who survived the crash but didn't make it off the island? Was that just to make the story seem more plausible, because the odds of everyone making it off the plane and then surviving on the island would be too slim? If so, why those three? And does this mean that we may one day find out what the hell Libby's backstory is?)

If "There's No Place Like Home" wasn't the game-changer that "Through the Looking Glass" was, at least it opens myriad story possibilities for next season. We obviously have the story of Ben and Jack teaming up to get the Oceanic Six (plus the corpse of Locke, and quite possibly Walt, now that the timeframe gibes with Malcolm David Kelley being eight feet tall and bursting with testosterone) back to the island. But we also potentially have three year's worth of island stories to tell, depending on exactly where and when the island disappeared to. For all I know, by the time Jack drags everybody back to Craphole Island, he'll find out that, from Sawyer's perspective, only a couple of days have passed, but Locke/Bentham's story about how bad things got on the island after the Six left implies there's a lot of story to tell there. I like the idea of an island setting with no Jack to play leader, Kate to play damsel in distress, or Ben to play pathological liar mastermind. Plus, within the real-world setting, we have the question of where Desmond and Penny are hiding -- and whether Sayid, as Ben's hired gun, would be willing to knowingly try to hurt the two of them -- what exactly Sun is doing with Paik and Widmore (and if she ever finds out that Ben killed Keamy, leading to what she assumes was the death of her husband, Ben-allied Jack is going to have some 'splainin' to do), how many former characters Hurley's playing chess with (Mr. Eko shout-out!!!!), what Abaddon's deal is, etc.

So even though this one wasn't all I might have hoped it could be (even as I should have realized, by the nature of what had come before, that it couldn't have been much more than this), I'm still very psyched to see what comes next, and frustrated as hell that it'll be another nine months or so until we find out.

Some other thoughts:

A couple of things were possibly ignored, or at least not explained well: Claire never got in the chopper, per Desmond's vision (though, as with the Naomi/Penny confusion, there's precedence for Desmond's visions being wonky), and I'd argue that nothing so terrible happened as a result of Hurley going with Locke in the premiere to justify him apologizing to Jack about it. I suppose you could say he blames himself for all the redshirts who went with him and Locke and then died when Keamy moved in on New Otherton, but that would presume that anyone on this show cares about the redshirts (who in this episode got to wear red life vests), and given how disinterested the main characters all were in getting anybody extra onto the chopper, I can't see Hurley beating himself up too much about that.

I have to mention it again: Mr. Eko shout-out!!! God, I miss Mr. Eko.

Another bit of full-circle, playing fair information-revealing: we now know, for the most part, how Ben wound up in the Tunisian desert sometime in 2005 wearing a bloody Dharma parka. Question: given how extreme that situation was, with him activating the Orchid, moving the frozen gears, etc., should we assume that, when he's gotten off the island previously (in the surveillance photos taken by Widmore's people), it was by other means?

The entire sequence of Locke watching the Candle/Halliwax video (which was very differen from the "raw footage" version that team "Lost" screened at Comic-Con last summer) while Ben casually threw metal junk into the chamber was hysterical, topped of course by Ben's "If you mean time-traveling bunnies, then yes." I also liked that, given how most of the Dharma tech on the island seems to be circa the late '70s, the effect of putting that junk into the chamber reminded me of what happened when I didn't listen carefully to my dad's instructions and put food wrapped in tinfoil into our first microwave oven.

I'm glad that Miles and Charlotte stayed on the island, and not only because Ken Leung's one of the best additions to the cast over the run of the show. I still want to find out what Abaddon's Plan A was that required him to assemble a team including a mercenary (Naomi), a mentally-ill physicist (Faraday), a medium (Miles) and an anthropologist who may or may not have been born on the island (Charlotte).

I don't know if it was because this episode was rushed through production due to the strike, but some of the special effects work -- notably the green screen of the airport behind Jack in the opening scene, and the shots of the freighter wreckage below the chopper -- looked much shoddier than usual.

On the other hand, I never tire of Michael Giacchino's score.

That's all I've got for now. A lot of you have weighed in already, but for tradition's sake, what did everybody else think?

I had read there was a big romantic point, and I think they tried to fake us out in the interviews and suggest there would be a lot of Jack/Sawyer/Kate love triangle. There was a bit, but they were obviously referring to Desmond/Penny.

Thanks to tornados and severe weather throughout Nebraska, weather reports replaced the first hour of LOST on both of my ABC stations. Never thought I would be cursing the TV during a non-sporting event.

Actually, the Bentham thing made me think it was Ben, both because "Ben" is in "Bentham", and also because Bentham invented the panopticon, which is a kind of prison in which the warden can see all the inmates at once.

So how did Locke/Bentham make it back to the mainland? Who is now the Island's "guardian" now? Why does EVERYONE have to come back or is that simply more mind games?And where/when are Jeremie Davies and the Raftaways?

Best season yet, but definitely an anticlimactic finale. If they hadn't been talking about moving the island for two episodes, that would have been surprising, but this was mostly showing us things we knew were going to happen. And yeah, Bentham immediately meant it was either Hume or Locke.

Absolutely loved it. The only word that I can use to describe this episode is; satisfying. This was perhaps the most satisfying finale of LOST. I feel full. Kudos to Damon and Carlton for giving us this amazing show and such a great finale. I a too blown away right now to post anything else.

Favourite moment of the finale: realizing that they totally explained the polar bears. Based on the anatomy of the inner-Orchid island moving station, combined with the subzero temperatures and the lever system in the polar bear cages, plus the Polar Bear found in Tunisia, the bears were there to move the island.

Great finale, not quite up to part with "Looking Glass" but certainly a great climax to the best season since the first.

I'll agree that Charlotte is Annie. Remember when the two of them had the fight while Farraday disabled the gas? After they walked out they were walking side by side, made to look as similar as possible. The similarities were so obvious, I thought it had to have some significance. Considering we were told that Ben liked Juliet because she reminded him of Annie, I think that was the hint we got.

I'll be the first complainer. It was an okay episode, not nearly as good as season finales past. A lot of the episode was purely perfunctory, moving pieces into places so the ending we saw coming last time happened. (Once I saw that C4, I figured the boat was a goner and the chopper would rescue Sun. Desmond would survive because of the Penny story. But everyone else on the boat were goners.)

If they had a concluding scene on the island, with a game-changer there, that would be something.

I hope this isn't the end of Desmond's story, and he's still on next season, but I fear it is, and he'll be reduced to cameos. Just like I fear we won't see what happened to Faraday. (Faraday seemed to know or feel he wouldn't see the island again, but did he survive? Why didn't Penny's boat see him? Heck, why didn't the chopper see the freighter much earlier if the latter was visible from the shore?)

I hope next season shows more of the islanders than the Oceanic 6. The island is much more interesting than the 6 trying to convince each other to return while Jack carries Locke around like "Weekend at Bernie's."

Can the show succeed without the constant goal of getting off the island? Will a goal to return work in a much larger, more realistic playing field? Does Charlotte have four toes? Do we really care about Charlotte?

I have to admit, when Ben said "He has to come too," I was afraid it was Desmond (or Frank). And I still thought it could be Christian Shepard as well.

Still trying to wrap my mind around lots of stuff. But just to do a quick tally of who's left behind on the island: Locke, Juliet, Sawyer, Miles, Charlotte, Rose, Bernard and the Others. And Claire if she's not dead.

Jin & Michael would seem to be dead, but we don't know for sure. (Although Hurley implied Michael wasn't to Walt.)

And Daniel and some survivors may or may not have gotten off the island. (But if they had, you would think Penny would have picked them up.)

And who the F is Jacob? When Christian Shepard said "you can go now" or something like that to Michael, did he mean he can die now? Are we going to find out Christian really is Jacob? That would be lame...

Considering I have been reading articles about how this was supposed to be the "best finale yet" and be "game changing" and all around awesome, I don't think it lived up to the hype. It was a decent episode, and had the fabulous Penny/Desmond reunion, but not what I was expecting out of the finale.

-I don't see how Jin could have survived. He had no where to swim. His only chance is if he got to the raft with Daniel, but where would they have gone?-Isn't Charlotte too young to be Ben's childhood girlfriend?-Are we to assume that when Ben wakes up in the desert it is right after moving the island?

I recall Damon and Carlton saying in their podcast about the finale that this year's wasn't going to have the same shock and awe as what they gave us to end last year. There wasn't going to be a game-changer, like when we found out some of them got off the island. I'm glad I knew that beforehand so I could adjust expectations accordingly.

I found it to be quite satisfying, especially the Penny/Desmond reunion because it's those story beats that melt my cold cold heart. I also initially thought last season that it was Locke in the coffin but talked myself out of it because there were so many other plausible candidates. I should stick with my instincts.

I find it ridiculous how some people are extrapolating that Charlotte is Annie. It does not work timeline wise. I think in Confirmed dead they showed us that Charlotte was like 24-25 years old. If Annie is alive she has to be around Ben's age; early 40s. So unless time travel is involved there is no possible way that Annie can be Charlotte.

"and also because Bentham invented the panopticon, which is a kind of prison in which the warden can see all the inmates at once."

You left out an important part of the panopticon: the warden can see all the inmates, but the inmates CANNOT see the warden. And because of this the inmates are to assume they are being watched all the time as they have no way of knowing. It provides the illusion of constant surveillance.

That's a good point, anonymous. The fact that the inmates don't know when they're being watched would lead one to believe that Jeremy Bentham is Jacob (presumably watching but almost impossible to see). Which would of course make Locke Jacob. Which is a theory some have advanced.

I suspect we will see plenty more of Desmond. After all, Ben said Widmore changed the rules when he killed Ben's daughter. Next season will involve Ben going after Widmore's daughter. What a great conflict. We hate Widmore, we love Penny.

I thought that a lot of the two hours were filler - I don't know how Lindecuse thought they'd need a whole extra hour. (Maybe they needed just a half but ABC didn't want to do that.)

The whole Oceanic Six getting to Membata was like being shown how a slightly good magic trick was actually done.

And for the coffin...because of the Island's time shift, by the end of the episode, I had convinced myself that the person in the coffin would be another Jack (one that was created when the island jumped in time).

Can't be Annie. She died why Ben gassed the barracks. He closed her eyes.

Ben closed Horace Goodspeed's eyes, and Annie was no where to be found.

I thought the episode was excellent. I liked it a lot more than last years, because I thought the flashforwards in "Through the Looking Glass" really dragged everything down. They weren't interesting until the very end.

LOVED this episode, and loved that they truly surprised me with a Des/Pen reunion 2 years earlier than I thought it would be coming.

I think Charlotte is Ben & Annie's daughter, but that he doesn't know it. I've thought for a long time that part of what drives Ben must be that Annie died in childbirth. Maybe he doesn't know that their daughter survived.

Is Claire dead?

Love the Myles comment above about the reason for the polar bears. Nice catch!

Sorry. I was confusing Annie with Horace. (I read about the closing of the eyes last week.) But still for Annie and Charlotte to be the same, we'd need to explain not only the age discrepancy, but how she doesn't remember the island. A slightly more likely possibility is that she's Annie's and Ben's love child, hidden from him off island.

BTW, Widmore's a weak villian because we haven't seen him doing anything other than plot. That's why all the new characters have seemed shallow and empty. Juliet's okay, but Charlotte and Miles are practically blank slates, and Daniel's only more because of Davies's acting.

Alan, was it from you, or from someone else, that I read that when Daniel watches the news of the crash in the second episode, it's actually in the future? I know I read it somewhere, but it might not have been correct. (We don't know why he was crying.)

Apparently Desmond's flashes don't always come true. No Claire getting into a plane in this episode....makes me wonder if that's something that is going to happen in the upcoming season and Desmond was just off in regards to the timing. Perhaps Kate & Aaron do go back.

Myles, great observation. I wonder if that was actually planned out in advance, or if it was a very clever backformation. Either way, it's pretty delightful.

I thought the finale was very good. We knew so much about what happened once they got off the Island that there wasn't much chance of any huge surprises. But it is fun, sometimes, to see things come together--and I thought this episode did that very well.

I haven't quite processed the finale, but did just want to note that the addition in the repeat of the first part of "There's No Place Like Home," was that, during the press conference and part of the Oceanic 6 cover story, Jack reveals that Boone, Charlie and Libby were the supposed 3 survivors who made it off the plane but died on the island.

Sun makes the world's worst heavy, though. Her hostile takeover scene was the worst. It's like back on Melrose Place when every character had to take their turn being the evil schemer. Evil Sun=Evil Billy. Just doesn't work.

Wait...so if Locke is dead, then the island was "done" with him, the same way it was "done" with Michael.

So since Michael was allowed to die immediately after successfully sabotaging the boat (which by that point he didn't want to do), then Locke must have been allowed to die after visiting with each of the Oceanic Six.

Well, the Charlotte reveal certainly expains why they tried to cast a strong presence like Kristen Bell in spite of the character not doing anything this season: She'll have a MAJOR role next season.

I'm curious how next season is handled as far as showing the O6 vs the Island. It seems like Rose, Bernard, and Richard all have to become regulars out of necessity (and maybe the stewardess...was she with the Others tonight?).

So, where do Desmond & Penny go? I kinda figured that they reunited after the Ben flash-forward that indicated she was hiding somewhere (it didn't seem like they'd throw in an extra stumbling block for Desmond like that) but I was still surprised. It makes me wonder if Jin is alive just so they can have a Big Romantic Finale Moment by revealing that he's alive and reuniting him with Sun then.

"Time-travelling bunnies" was the best "Yes, John..." Ben has ever spoken.

Toddler Aaron (who's played by one of the original Aarons) still looks like he has Down Syndrome and it makes me sad.

Frank was wrapped up too neatly for him not to come back. He'd better, because Fahey was awesome in the role.

Oh, and Kate's boobs were so hyperactive compared to non-finale episodes that it must've been a deliberate move.

So with the prospect now of a parallel with Locke returning to the island in a coffin, and the idea of a chain of succession with regard to "caretakers" of the island, I wonder if we'll find out that Christian Shepard was also at one time a caretaker of the island. He wasn't allowed to return to the island while he was alive. Anything in the timeline that would preclude that?

I don't know that anything in the timeline would preclude it, but Christian's demeanor in all the Jack flashbacks certainly didn't really suggest that the guy had once lived a secret life as ruler of a time-traveling, sentient island.

Hurley might also blame himself because he led Locke to the cabin, leading to Locke moving the island. And I could even see Hurley taking the weight for the freighter explosion, because he helped set up the situation.

I liked Sun taking down her father, actually. Although I know the money side of it makes no sense, and the scene with Widmore was meh.

Also speaking of Sun, apparently the second person she blames for Jin's death is Jack.

Hurley may also blame himself because if Hurley hadn't gone with Locke, Jack and Sawyer wouldn't have to go on that expedition to save Hurley and could've spent that time getting more folks off the island.

Remember that when Hurley apologizes, Ben aka Bentham hasn't visited yet so none of the O6 know about the story of Ben & Keamy's failsafe and how that doomed anyone on the freighter.

Charlotte is their daughter and now grows up in the presence of her adult self.

As for Daniel Faraday, I think he and the 7 redshirts travelling with him were outside the sphere of influence for the island. Then Daniel has to track down the now-missing Desmond since he is his constant. And to do so, he allies himself with Ben, not realizing why Ben is looking for Desmond - to kill Penny.

I think this was the first time a season finale actually matched up with its code name.

I don't know that anything in the timeline would preclude it, but Christian's demeanor in all the Jack flashbacks certainly didn't really suggest that the guy had once lived a secret life as ruler of a time-traveling, sentient island.

Ah, but that's why it's a secret life.

I'm just trying to get the more wacky theories on the record so in case it does happen I can pretend I saw it coming. Despite the fact that I am the world's worst when it comes to predicting this show.

The parallel to Locke returning to the island in a coffin is still cool, though.

And I think it's a near-certainty that Locke/Bentham told Sun about the circumstances surrounding Ben offing Keamy.

mrglass, it's because Ben figures that if Widmore found them once, they could find it again.

This makes sense if you consider that at this point:

1) Ben doesn't know that the boat wasn't able to "radio home" and distribute the coordinates of exactly where they are

2) Also, it gives a little bit more credence to Jack's lying strategy since at the point of his coming-up-with-it he didn't know what 'moving the island' really entailed other than Hurley's brief mention of it.

Last question...when Claire appears to Kate, does she not have her Ozzie accent?

Mr. Sepinwall, fantastic recap considering the time it took you, and the details put into it from episodes past... just wanted to throw that in there.

After being able to digest the finale after a few hours, what strikes me the most is how the final reveal of Locke in the coffin was the least interesting thing about the episode. I thought the separate stories of Desmond/Penny reunion, Jin's (possible) death, the island moving, Sun's meeting with Widmore, what happened to the Farrady folk, and on and on, were better TV than the final reveal. Not that it wasn't good, just kind of a "oh that makes sense" moment.

I can't tell you how happy I was that Ben wasn't in the coffin. Michael Emerson for an Emmy.

Wow. That packed an emotional punch. In the gut. I was crying hysterically for at least 30 minutes during that. When Sawyer jumped out and when Jin (maybe) blew up. And then again when Penny and Desmond got back together.

I thought it was full of suspense. We knew the ending but I was really surprised how we got there.

It is easy to hate Jack and we all kind of do. But I felt really bad for him. You could see him doubting himself all along and now he feels like everything bad that happened was his fault even though he did rational things in a difficult situation. He did the best he could and I feel bad. I hope he gets redemption.

And Thank you, Lindecuse, for Sawyer coming out of the ocean. Mmmmmmm.

I don't know that anything in the timeline would preclude it, but Christian's demeanor in all the Jack flashbacks certainly didn't really suggest that the guy had once lived a secret life as ruler of a time-traveling, sentient island.

Miles to Charlotte: "I'm surprised you want to leave, considering how much time you spent trying to come back here."

Charlotte to Faraday, later: "Would it make any sense if I told you I was still looking for where I was born?"

Charlotte seems to have been born on the island - but in the past or future? And how did she get to 2004, via time travel to the past or the normal way by living through time? She was collecting newspaper accounts of 815 when she was digging up the polar bear in Tunisia; maybe she came to meet her parents.

There were whispers when Christian appeared to Michael. He and Jin aren't necessarily dead; we don't know if the boat exploded immediately after Christian said "you can go now" to Michael, or if there was enough time for the two of them to get off the boat. Hurley thinks Michael's dead, though, and Sun apparently thinks Jin is too.

Alan wrote:Christian's demeanor in all the Jack flashbacks certainly didn't really suggest that the guy had once lived a secret life as ruler of a time-traveling, sentient island.

Having trouble swallowing this one. I'm disappointed at the lack of new information - you hit it on the nose that they were showing us stuff we already figured out. For all of the forward momentum this season, it felt like a different kind of running in place.

I wish there was more whimsy - like the four-toed statue, Adam & Eve, the Black Rock - and more moments of magic and miracles. Moving the island was fantastic (and the polar bear explanation is awesome), but other than the Penny/Desmond reunion, that was the only point in this episode where I felt satisfied (I was looking forward to his conversation with Richard, and then they only alluded to it. That was ripe for a throw-away answer or two).

Now, I'm amongst the world's most steadfast Lost apologists, so tonight I discovered what it would take for me to stop drinking the Dharma juice: a series finale that was of little consequence for John Locke, who I've always considered the hero of this story and the character closest to its heart.

Locke's journey is the reason I care about the show. The mythology is cool, and Ben is clearly the best character, but Locke's the reason i got sucked in and while i don't need him to have a happy ending, I need him to get a satisfying ending. Not be dead on arrival.

If he can die, why was the island done with him? All those years to get him there and then he only got three years in charge (although I still believe that could be 40 years in island time). Then again, he was rounding people up to go back to the island... I'm so emotionally invested in his journey that I need him to have a period of time where he's unambiguously and unapologetically the man.

I'm sure there's plenty of story to tell for the next two years, and maybe there's a happy ending for him yet of the Christian Shepherd, Jacob variety, or the resurrected messiah-figure variety.

Oh, and I just rewatched Kate's dream of Claire: first, there was some backwards-masking on the phone call, so we'll have to wait til someone plays it backwards to hear what was really said; and second, Claire's accent didn't sound that strange. Maybe because she didn't say too many words that sound differently with an Aussie accent.

This episode may have been such a foregone conclusion by now that there was no room for any more twists (plus it would have infuriated the romantics in the audience) -- but I was half expecting Penny, following her seemingly happy reunion with Desmond, to turn out to be secretly eeeevil in some way, perhaps in cahoots with her father, and maybe even kill poor Des. Of course, there's still time for something like that next season....

We seem to have an explanation of how Friendly was able to get off and on the island when he messed with Michael -- presumably via the Orchid's standard operation. The rest of the video likely explained how to calibrate the machine for a specific place/time and how to come back. Why did it automatically rewind as it was getting good?

Tall Walt to Hurley is explained based on the timeline. Tall Walt to Locke on the island is still a mystery. Was he whisked back by the Orchid from the future? Is he actually one of the dead visions? He'd be the logical next island caretaker, but likely lacks the acting props.

I must say I cringed a bit whenever they showed starving Aaron in this episode. There must have been a off-screen story seeking Dharma formula (webisode?). Or maybe off-screen Kate started playing wet nurse, explaining the increasing perkiness of her breasts.

Steve Ely said: "It'd be pretty astonishing for Claire to be missing the Aussie accent, since the actress is Australlian."

Just like to point out that de Ravin played an American in Roswell, so it's not like she can't effect an American accent at all just because she is by nationality Australian. Having said that, she sounded American to me, too, in that scene, but as someone else said, it was probably accidental.

I jumped out of my seat and yelled "Yes!" when I saw Penny. That was awesome, but I do fear for them both now. Obviously, Ben will be going after Penny at some point.

The time-traveling bunnies line was simply hilarious.

I really enjoyed this episode. My initial thought was that all of next season would be about getting back on the island, but on second thought, I think only part of it will. This season we had a pre-determined end point -- how the O6 got off the island and who is in the coffin. It might be anti-climatic to do another season-long arc of the "Yes, but how did they do it?" variety.

Anyway, it was tons of fun to watch with a group, though I am sure I missed a bunch of the details. Can't wait to re-watch tomorrow night.

Joshjs: I love the theory that the last person who moved the island and isn't allowed to return is someone we've met. Widmore is a great thought - would explain his obsession with finding it, and also his twisted relationship with Ben (who is his replacement as the caretaker.) Of course it could be Abadon, too (his role in trying to get people to the island could be to line up the necessary people to help it, since he's unable to), although he's probably still just the hired gun and Widmore is the guy who moved the island.

Love the theory that Charlotte is Ben and Annie's child - maybe Annie left with the baby after seeing how Ben was starting to act strangely (sneaking into the woods to meet Richard, talking crazily about the island powers) and that's what precipitated the purge. Makes sense for Ben's kidnapping of Alex, too - he wanted to replace the daughter that was taken from him.

Now I can't recall... when Charlotte was found on the island, was Ben with the group that found her? My head hurts.

I've come to the conclusion that Lost is the laziest written show on television. Latest case in point: why in the world would Keamy want the freighter to automatically be destroyed if he died? It makes absolutely no sense, and much of the dramatic tension in the finale hinges on this ridiculous plot contrivance.

Another reason to dislike this finale is that it totally vitiates the value of Charlie's sacrifice. As you may recall, the manner of his death was actually pretty lame--just close the hatch from the inside, moron!-- but could be defended from Charlie's POV if he believed that he HAD to die in this manner so that Claire and the baby would get off the island as per Desmond's vision. But now as it turns out, Desmond's visions don't always come true. Oops! Sorry, Charlie!

btw, not only is Jin almost certainly still alive-- no doubt Daniel will pick him up in the boat after conveniently losing a redshirt or two-- but I don't see why everyone's so sure that Michael's dead. Christian told him he could go, so why couldn't Michael jump off the freighter at the last second along with Jin?

anyway, I expect that Daniel and Jin (and maybe Michael) will survive the open seas because of some time-travel related message that Daniel has in his notebook about what bearing to take or something like that.

The fact that the inmates don't know when they're being watched would lead one to believe that Jeremy Bentham is Jacob (presumably watching but almost impossible to see). Which would of course make Locke Jacob. Which is a theory some have advanced.

That's an interesting analysis. This episode for the first time made me believe that Locke is Jacob, if only because they're (presumably) going to take Locke's body back to the island in the casket. Which reminded me of how Jacob's mouthpiece arrived on the island. And since, if Locke is dead, he is no longer corporeal, which is a major similarity with Jacob.

I loved that there was an actual frozen donkey wheel in the episode. It wasn't in the actual "frozen donkey wheel" scene (which I assume is the final scene at the funeral parlour), but still. I've been trying to figure out where that codename came from for weeks - it's not an obvious concept, like a snake in the mailbox, nor is it generic enough to be a randomly picked name, like a type of Jewish bread. So it's nice to know that the answer.

Really enjoyed the show. Don't have a lot to add, but I thought it was solid. There were no real big revelations - even in the final scene, the idea that it was Locke in the coffin was a popular theory, and it wasn't surprising that everyone would need to return to the island. But it was exciting, suspenseful, and funny. And the moment when Penny appeared - one of the best moments of the season. Completely out of the blue, completely unexpected, but totally earned and exciting.

I still don't totally buy why they had to lie about the island. If they lie, then the bad guys keep looking for the island. If they shout to the world that there are more survivors, then the whole world will go looking for them. Isn't it better if the bad guys aren't the only ones looking?

And I'm still annoyed that they're passing Aaron off as Kate's. It's cruel to Claire's family — although, from a plot point, it would be darn hard to get the baby back from Grammy when they finally decide they all have to go back to the island.

Sun – The other person responsible for Jin’s Death in her eyes is not Jack, its Widmore. As she looked down at that freighter and knew it was full of explosives, how could she not blame the person who set up the whole expedition. She knew the Keamy Kommandos would have killed them on the Island and they would have died on the freighter. All roads lead to Widmore. She is waging economic war on Paik and Widmore, and luring Widmore into a deeper involvement is the first step (or second step after the Paik takeover).

Jack – As the Man of Science, Jack has always been the one to poo poo the view of the Island as mystical, and while the convos between Locke and Jack have always been thin on supporting facts concerning the Island, I’ve always imagined that they had deeper conversations about their philosophies off camera. I assumed that Jack has an idea about Smokey, has heard about “Seeing Dead People”, and that Locke (at least , at the Orchid) has told him about Jacob (but probably not Christian or Claire). However, Jack being rational and stubborn, still dismissed these ideas out of hand. Even after seeing the Island disappear, he didn’t believe that Locke(well, Ben) activated it. I think Hurley’s sarcasm hit home and we saw the scales fall from his eyes. When he put it all together, he realized the Island did need protecting, even if it was just to protect the remaining survivors from another Widmore-style eradication. Of course, the FF show that that the O6 must go back, but we still have no idea why.

Hurley – When Sayid comes to collect him, he is playing Chess with an empty chair. Of course, my mind flickered over possible opponents: Dave? Jacob? But no, its Mr Eko. Great call back, and of course, another game….everything is a game in Lost.

Christian – His one appearance was chilling and at the time, confirmed to me that this was Jacob’s plan. (Micheal’s recruitment, the cabin scene, keeping Mike alive until his role was done) But as I mulled it over, especially in light of Claire’s warning in Kate’s dream of not bringing Aaron back to the Island. I think that Christian/Claire usurped Jacob’s role and gave false directions to Locke. What if Jacob’s plea of “Help Me” to Locke was meant “Save me from Christian”? Of course, who or what faction does Christian represent becomes the next question? And why do they want the Island hidden away again?

Ben – How can anyone so lacking in human compassion still be heroic? I guess when you are consumed by the only real love you’ve known and the need to avenge their death, you can do good as a side effect… So, now Ben is free of his responsibility to the Others and is mano a mano vs. Widmore. Cool.

Lastly, The Island/Everyone Else – It and they are gone. Where is it? When is it? Was the movement in space and time enough to escape detection from those hunting the Island?Did the Dinghy make it back into range of the Purple Sky or will they be thrown to another time or timeline?

Back to Jack and the O6 coverup, if the Island is gone (evidently, for good, but from the FF, maybe not) why have a coverup? Especially since the crash fakers know the O6 are faking (and Sun said as much to Widmore). Is it really just to prevent gawkers?

And one last question, when “Jeremy Bentham” visited the O6, was he in a wheelchair?

Sorry, if I’ve repeated previous posts. I read some right after the show, but this all percolated up after a night’s sleep.

The Libyans in "Back to the Future" didn't have a chance to check for a bulletproof vest. They shot Doc Brown, then immediately started chasing Marty and smashed into a photo-hut after he leapt.

Couldn't the Libyans have gone back and checked Doc after Marty disappeared into 1955? I mean, what else did they do at that point?

Anyway....If Jin somehow survived and made it back to the island, Locke would know. And if Locke visited Sun, he would/could tell her this. Then she would want to go back to the island, which might explain why she approached Widmore talking about "mutual interests."

"I still don't totally buy why they had to lie about the island. If they lie, then the bad guys keep looking for the island. If they shout to the world that there are more survivors, then the whole world will go looking for them. Isn't it better if the bad guys aren't the only ones looking?"

As I recall there was an episode where Ben (?) mentions to Locke that the island if it becomes public knowledge that the island has the power to cure paralysis, etc. could you imagine the circus it would become? Thus, it had to stay secret.

That said, I tend to agree it was a solid finale. Nothing game changing like last season's; I'd like to think Jin is alive, but I tend to believe the DUI = DEAD theory. I think Micheal's dead.

Also, the show is what you bring to it... I thought Michael stayed with the bomb since he was aware of his immortality (crafty!) and my wife smacked me and said "He's seeking redemption, dummy."

(My wife also asked if Jack got his beard from the locker next to Mr. Friendly.)

Sun – The other person responsible for Jin’s Death in her eyes is not Jack, its Widmore. As she looked down at that freighter and knew it was full of explosives, how could she not blame the person who set up the whole expedition. She knew the Keamy Kommandos would have killed them on the Island and they would have died on the freighter. All roads lead to Widmore. She is waging economic war on Paik and Widmore, and luring Widmore into a deeper involvement is the first step (or second step after the Paik takeover).

That is, until she's visited by Bentham/Locke who tells her how Ben killed Keamy without caring that it would kill their friends on the freighter. Yes, Widmore might have brought the loaded gun, but Ben pulled the trigger. Teaming up with Widmore is a way to get Ben, too.

Re: Boone, Libby and Charley. Those were all people who died on teh Island for real. Boone and Charlie were liked by all of them and Hurley was close to Libby. My guess is they wnated to honor them by publically mentioning their fates in a way that kept their cover story.

Re: the casket. I knew it was either Ben or Locke and when Ben showed up I said...Locke's in there.

I just want to add one minor point: IIRC, we never *see* Desmond's vision of Claire boarding the helicopter; we just see Desmond relating it to Charlie as a way of convincing him to take on the suicide mission.

It is possible that Desmond's vision was the accurate one, but that he didn't have the heart to tell Charlie that Claire dies anyway.

I've read several comments on this blog and others about the lovely Penny/Desmond reunion, but for me, the standout moment of romance/love was when Sawyer whispered to Kate, kissed her, and threw himself off the helicopter (very possibly to his death, although we found out later--hurrah!--that he survived). As the Good Book says: "Greater love hath no man than he lay down his life for another". For all that Jack likes to claim that HE rescued Kate...Sawyer was literally willing to die for her.

I was very satisfied with this finale and it was a good ending to the season. But I still have some problems.Here's what bothered me most about this finale:

1.) They showed Rose early in the episode talking to Miles. Why didn't they show what happened to her later in the episode? Was she on the raft with Faraday? I don't think so, because it didn't look like she was. But when Sawyer came back to the island, they made it seem like Juliet was the only one there. (at this point we already knew that Miles and Charlotte stayed also). I'm hoping this means Rose and Bernard will have a bigger role in the final 2 seasons.

2.) The reasoning for them lying about the circumstances of the crash seemed to make sense. They were all in shock at the time and were so used to following Jack's lead. As time went by, it seems like the lie got deeper and deeper and harder to keep. I think Jack was really concerned with what Locke told him about the island granting miracles but he didn't want to share that with the others. That's why he came up with the story to tell them that they must lie or Widmore will come after them.

3.) This is what bothered me most. I never understood why everyone was so anxious to get to the boat. Once the mercenaries arrived on the island with intent to kill them all, wasn't it stupid of everyone to think there weren't more of them on the freighter? I understand that Faraday claimed he knew nothing about the mercenary's orders (but he obviously did because he knew what they meant when they activated the secondary protocol). I choose to look at it as if everyone was just so anxious to get off the island that they were willing to do so despite the risk of what may be awaiting them on the boat....But I still wish they had someone voice these concerns.

re: SawyerThat was a great moment - I assume the whisper was about his daughter.

re: Libby, Boone, CharlieThey all died on the island, but so did Shannon, Eko, Ana-Lucia, and countless red-shirts. Why not mention any of them or Jin? All 3 are dead, pop up in visions to others, but I don't recall any significant interaction between the 3 of them. Everything seems deliberate on this show.

Regarding the Frozen Donkey Wheel scene - I believe D&C said in a podcast that the "FDW" scene wasn't going to be the last scene of the episode, so I do think that scene with Ben pushing the wheel was THE "FDW" scene.

Idle speculation -- practically, Keamy's transmitter could have lost contact with the enormous pile of C4 when he went down into the Orchid, but dramatically it's key that we know only that it lost contact and that Locke was concerned with the people on the freighter while Ben was focused solely on revenge. (Plus, I'd guess that Ben was also a little touchy about having to leave his home, the island.)

The interaction between Rose and Miles ("who said you could eat those?") was great. Miles and Charlotte seem to be the two characters whose storylines were cut due to the strike-trimmed season, so more Rose and Miles next season could be fun.

After re-watching some of the finale in HD-streaming rather than accomplishing any work, I'm intriguied not only by the various factions vying for control of the island, but how they relate and why they care so much about the island. Of the important people with money and/or some off-island knowledge about the island, we have Hanso/DeGroot/Dharma, Widmore, Paik, Ben, Richard & The Others.

Also, since the finale re-visited a Dharma station relating to the weird properties of the island, how much did Candle/Halliwax/etc and the rest of the Dharmites know about the island. Does the frozen donkey wheel mechanism built by the Dharma Initiative or did it pre-date Dharma and the Orchid was built to access/harness the power of the frozen donkey wheel? I'm still curious about how the initiative found the island and its properties in the first place and why they built the various research stations (along with the various intra-Dharma subterfuge.) What was the incident led to the numbers-based safety protocol in the Swan station?

So, what of the time lag phenomenon? Juliet is watching the destruction of the boat in real time (presumably), so, the time curve was, at that moment, flattened, is that right? Or had the boat moved closer to the island's mojo so that this was no longer an issue?

Who's the "He" Kate referred to in the scene with Jack in the parking lot at the end of last season?

Sawyer's whispered whatever to Kate should make for a good reveal sometime in the next two seasons.

And what possibly drove Locke off the island? This should be a good one. It had better be.

Jacob's got to be someone from the distant future, homo superior, would you agree?

I agree with Alan's review almost 100%. It wasn't a mind-blowing finale, which makes it (by comparison) disappointing.

My biggest complaint with the episode was that we aren't left with any real mysteries that we can postulate on. None of the questions raised by the finale have any prior information or planted clues that we can draw on to speculate on over the next eight months.

For example, last year, we were given all sorts of solid mysteries (who was in the coffin, who was the 'him' that Kate was referring to, etc) that we could speculate on for months.

But this year, we see Locke in the coffin. It's a dead end as far as fun speculation goes because there has been ZERO information or clues revealed prior to this to sift through. Where/when is the Island? Some foreshadowing or pre-planted clues would have been nice. We knew at the end of LAST season that he Island wanted Jack and the other rescued Lostaways to go back. We're in the exact same spot today, but the only difference is that we there's now the specific seven people that have to go back. Any better clue WHY? No.

But for me, the most disappointing aspect of this finale is how mundane and bland the 'origin' of the Oceanic Six ultimately turned out to be. For months, we've speculated about HOW the six were chosen, and if there was a deal made between the O6 and the ones that stayed behind. Or if there was some scientific reason why these were the only six that made it off (the leading theory being that the O6 were all people that were farthest away from the hatch when it blew at the end of season two, and therefore might be less magnetized or whatever).

But no... it was nothing more interesting than these were the six that happened to be on the helicopter when it all went down.

So now that we know that there was no PLAN as to who got to leave, the whole 'Lie' part of the story now doesn't hold any water.

First off, why did the O6 have to reveal their identities in the first place? Why wouldn't they all just want to stay hidden or under fake names, especially since the whole world thought they were dead? Since it was apparent that Widmore was trying to kill them all, why would they think they'd be safe after going public? Compounding this, we have Desmond, Frank and perhaps Penny all now in hiding. Why the need to go public? Especially KATE who knew she had a potential jail term awaiting her?

It made sense when they HAD to come up with a story to explain to their rescuers. But they were rescued by Penny! They were safe! Penny has more than enough resources to have kept them all hidden and safe.

Now the second part of why the O6's story thread falls apart is that in spite of wanting to keep the island protected and hidden, there were still a couple of dozen people (I've lost track of how many 815ers we have left) who WANT TO BE RESCUED. Rather than go back to the mainland and return to their lives while prolonging this lie, I'd think that all of them, led by Desmond and Penny and Sayid, would want to continue to look for the island for those remaining 815ers (and Juliet and Faraday and Charlotte's) sakes. They just forget about them and go on with their lives? For three years?

Penny's comment, "I have a tracking station" made this continued rescue attempt obvious (to me at least).

Additionally, (and excuse my shouting), THE ISLAND DISAPPEARED! Who are they protecting it from? Where is ANYONE going to think to look for it? They couldn't find it when they knew about where it was. How is anyone going to find it now?

They could have told the TRUTH about the island, but no one would ever believe them because there'd be no way to verify their story.

And finally, I can smell a massive course-change with the whole freighter story, mid-season. I'm sure the Writer's Strike had something to do with it, but everything we were told at the beginning of the season ("You don't want to mess with the captain of the freighter!!") turned out to be meaningless. As has been pointed out elsewhere, the whole "blow up the ship" plan was silly when you really look at it, especially since there's no reason why Keamy would have felt the need to wire himself up. As far as he knew, the only people on the boat were the skeleton crew left behind. Granted, he was threatening the Losties only hope for escape, but unless he read the script for the finale, there's no way he'd know how much of a threat the Dead Man's Switch would actually be.

And finally (I mean it this time), was this freighter and its crew the BEST that Widmore could come up with? This is the man that planted an entire jet filled with fake passengers and crew at the bottom of the ocean! He couldn't have afforded a crew of TRUSTED employees to carry out this most important task of locating the island? He couldn't have afforded a FLEET of state of the art ships? Penny certainly had a nice boat and a crew she could trust. She didn't have any problem getting to the area in secret and doing what she needed to do.

The mysteries we were left with at the end of last season, and the amazing things we were shown this season ended up not connecting together very well. It all fit together a bit too sloppily. They had to shave some of the puzzle pieces to make them fit.

Anyway, it's a long eight months or so of being Lost-less and not having anything really juicy to theorize about.

Alan, I'm thinking Sawyer and Miles are the likeliest culprits to stir up some trouble on the island. But enough to cause things to go to hell and to send Locke back to the world? Meh. Miles doesn't really seem cut out for it. Probably there's someone else we've yet to meet. Who knows?

The "He" thing. I mis-remembered. Kate said, "He'll be looking for me." Not, "He'll be back soon."

Two episodes, actually (in addition to the ones where we just heard his voice on the radio). He's important in both "The Constant" (as an example of how badly Desmond needs to get over his own time sickness) and "Meet Kevin Johnson" (as a symbol of Michael's guilt over betraying yet another group of people he's traveling with).

Vic Digital, your ideas intrigue me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

I had also built it up in my head that Jack wound up cutting some kind of deal (with Ben, or Widmore, or Richard, or even Jacob himself) to get these specific six people, and only these six people, off the island, and that the Oceanic Six lie was a condition of that deal. That certainly makes more sense -- and is more dramatically interesting -- than how things actually went down.

In terms of going into hiding, I'm sure that Jack and Hurley and Sun wanted to get back to their families, and Sayid to his search for Nadia (who wound up finding him, instead). Like I said in the review, part of the actual rationale for the Oceanic Six lie is that Jack believes it provides them with protection from Widmore or whomever faked the wreckage and sent the freighter. Jack believes that if the Six play along with the lie the world already knows, Widmore won't be able to go after them. Buy into that logic or not, but at least that's how I read the choice.

Also, the island disappeared, and after Hurley explained what was going on with Locke and Ben and the cabin, I could see the Six realizing they had no hope of ever finding Juliet and Rose and Bernard and anyone else left behind, and that they had no choice but to fake a smile and go on with their lives.

I still think we're going to get at least one more Minkowski (Fisher Stevens) appearance. When he was delusional, he was obviously seeing something at some other place in time. I'm sure we'll eventually get the other half of where he was unstuck in time.

One interesting thing about Kevin Durand- I've only seen him in two things, Lost and 3:10 to Yuma. In both, he meets his end by getting violently stabbed in the chest/neck/face area. I guess he's the 'gruesome upper-body stabbing death' goto guy in Hollywood now...

Didn't anyone catch the commercial for Octagon Global Recruiting near the end of the show? Their national recruitment drive is this summer in San Diego in July, which - what a coincidence! - is the same dates as the Comic-Con.

Finally, word is out that Kate's backwards phone caller said "The island needs you....You have to go back before it's too late." Then Claire told her not to take Aaron.

One final note about why this finale left me a bit underwhelmed:It was an okay episode, but as far as being a finale, and the last Lost we get for eight months, it didn't cut it. This felt exactly like the end of Season One, when we finally got to open the hatch, and all they showed us was a ladder that went down. Well, we already figured there'd be that. Same with this year. We figured we'd get to see who was in the coffin. We figured we'd see the Island disappear. We knew we'd see the Oceanic Six rescued. We didn't get any compelling or mind-blowing glimpse into the future.

What they should have done was left us with at least one short scene on the island, wherever/whenever it now is. Imagine how wild it would have been to have seen snow falling on the trees, or to see a pterodactyl fly overhead, or to have the camera pan across the water (from the perspective of the shore of the beach) and alight upon an old sailing ship bearing down on the island with the name "Black Rock" on the side, or for us to see a half-dozen people emerge from the forest, and it's Juliet with short hair (or grey hair) or Rose with a bandoleer strapped across her chest, standing next to an almost-familar Asian man with long hair and a wicked goatee (or maybe some burn scars), or Sawyer with a shaved head, or maybe a new young child running around. (speaking of, there's still a passel of children somewhere on the island, isn't there?)

I feel we needed to be left with SOME tantalizing glimpse into the Island's fate, ala BSG's one=year-later leap in time. THAT would have given us something to talk about over the next few months.

Okay... I think I'm done ranting about this finale. Back to your regularly scheduled comments...

re: Libby, Boone, CharlieThey all died on the island, but so did Shannon, Eko, Ana-Lucia, and countless red-shirts. Why not mention any of them or Jin? All 3 are dead, pop up in visions to others, but I don't recall any significant interaction between the 3 of them. Everything seems deliberate on this show.

My theory is that all three were people that Jack personally tried to save, and so he had the emotional memory to carry out the "lie" without seeming false to their families. He lost both Boone and Libby after treating them, and although Charlie died away from him, there was the time when Charlie was discovered after the Ethan kidnapping and Jack pounded his chest to bring him back to life. The other deaths were not as personal to him - not sure if this was a calculated move, but at least a subconscious choice by Jack.

Re: Puff-- Unless Aaron de-ages when he gets back to the island, there's no way now that "Claire and her baby" can get on a helicopter, which IIRC is what Desmond said he saw.

What I don't understand is why Claire and Aaron couldn't somehow get on the helicopter, and then have Claire disappear with Christian. What did the writers really accomplish by having her wander off into the jungle? Like I said, lazy writing.

oz

p.s. Adam, I don't think Desmond is evil enough to lie to Charlie about his vision-- making sure Claire and Aaron could be together was the whole reason he sacrificed himself!

Regarding the Frozen Donkey Wheel scene - I believe D&C said in a podcast that the "FDW" scene wasn't going to be the last scene of the episode, so I do think that scene with Ben pushing the wheel was THE "FDW" scene.

Actually, I remembered them saying that - but I just assumed that D&C later decided just to move the scene to the end. Certainly the funeral scene would be a more logical choice to be the "FDW" scene - despite the fact that there weren't any big no-one-saw-that-coming moments, there was the revelation of the identity of Jeremy Bentham, there was Ben's comment about everyone having to return, it was an important scene. The scene with the literal FDW - well, that's just a scene of the mechanism of Ben moving the island, and whether it was achieved by pushing a frozen donkey wheel or pushing a button wasn't actually important. It could be that the entire moving-the-island sequence was the FDW, but that's much to big for a codenamed scene. And, strange as it may be to say that an entire island moving isn't a big deal, it is what the last 4 or 5 episodes have been building up to, it was't a surprise at all that it moved, and it involved too many people making the scene (Locke, Ben, all the people on the helicopter, not to say all the effects artists working on the island vanishing - some of the effects in the episode were shoddy and seemed rushed, but that one was nicely done) to be the small keep-as-secret-as-possible scene the FDW would be.

(Plus, the Good Morning America alternate endings all revolved around the "who's in the coffin" shot, which also suggests the fiuneral parlour scene is the FDW.)

So, what of the time lag phenomenon? Juliet is watching the destruction of the boat in real time (presumably), so, the time curve was, at that moment, flattened, is that right? Or had the boat moved closer to the island's mojo so that this was no longer an issue?

Wasn't there a reference to them bringing the boat in close? Not sure whether they actually did, or whether they were distracted by the C4, but they certainly could have moved past the time distortion. Or it could be that the distortion only affects physical objects moving through it, not light and the like, so that she could be seeing the freighter in real time even with the distortion in place.

But this year, we see Locke in the coffin. It's a dead end as far as fun speculation goes because there has been ZERO information or clues revealed prior to this to sift through.

I don't know. What happened on the island once they moved it? What exactly did they move it to? How did he die? (There was a reference to suicide - did he really kill himself, if so why, if he died some in some other way, how and why?) Why do people refer to him as Bentham, even when they're in conversation among themselves? Why would people shun Locke's funeral - I mean, yes there were problems between them all, but they had been friends once. What was Locke doing off the island? Like everything in Lost, thatshot of the coffin may have answered one question, but it established a lot of others.

First off, why did the O6 have to reveal their identities in the first place? Why wouldn't they all just want to stay hidden or under fake names, especially since the whole world thought they were dead? Since it was apparent that Widmore was trying to kill them all, why would they think they'd be safe after going public? Compounding this, we have Desmond, Frank and perhaps Penny all now in hiding. Why the need to go public? Especially KATE who knew she had a potential jail term awaiting her?

I think you just need to look at the reunion scene in Part 1 to know why they didn't want to use fake identities. Plus, if everyone knows why the Oceanic 6 are, and then they all suddenly die, questions will get asked. If a bunch of random people with no apparent connection die, no-one would know that their deaths were related. Going public would help their safety, but lying would help the island's safety.

Rather than go back to the mainland and return to their lives while prolonging this lie, I'd think that all of them, led by Desmond and Penny and Sayid, would want to continue to look for the island for those remaining 815ers (and Juliet and Faraday and Charlotte's) sakes. They just forget about them and go on with their lives? For three years?

Yes. Because the island vanished, and they had no way that they knew of to get back to it to rescue anyone else. What do you expect them to do - dedicate the rest of their lives in a futile effort to get back to an island that they're actually glad to be off and don't actually want to go back to? I have no doubt they probably spent a day or two sailing around the area in Penny's boat looking for anyone else they could pick up before they gave up and went off to set up the cover story. But that is all I would expect.

Additionally, (and excuse my shouting), THE ISLAND DISAPPEARED! Who are they protecting it from? Where is ANYONE going to think to look for it? They couldn't find it when they knew about where it was. How is anyone going to find it now? They could have told the TRUTH about the island, but no one would ever believe them because there'd be no way to verify their story.

Why tell that? No-one would believe them, they'll be dismissed as insane. Plus, who knows what Widmore knows about the island. Perhaps if he knows it vanished, he'll know enough about the island's operation to work out where it's vanished to. If he thinks it's still where it was, he'll waste time looking for it where it isn't.

I know there are still a few who believe that the music choices on Lost are for audible aesthetics only, but the six-to-seven seconds of "Gouge Away" blasting from Jack's jeep seemed pretty relevant to the story for me.

"Gouge Away" is about the story of Samson and Delilah, and Locke makes for a nice Samson -- a man of faith who gets his strength from an unlikely source, in (a very bald) Locke's case, of course it's the island. Samson had his eyes gouged out by his enemies when he lost his strength, while Locke might very well be dead off the island. Of course, the inverse could be true as well... the island gets it's strength from it's inhabitants, and thus needs the O6 to come back before it has to "pull the pillars down" on itself and it's enemies, to again reference Samson.

Beyond that, though, the song was also a perfect mirror to Jack's previous angst-filled drive up to the funeral parlor, which had Nirvana playing. Pixies were a huge influence on Nirvana, much like Locke was to Bentham.

"Lie to them Jack. If you do it half as well as you lie to yourself, they'll believe you."

Terry O'Quinn couldn't have delivered that line any better. That smirk was perfect.

Although I would have never said this until mid-season 3, a part of me was glad that John got the last word b/w him and Jack...for now. Couldn't help but chuckle when the elevator door closed behind him as Jack menacingly approached looking like he wanted to retort with his fists.

I know this has always been a problem on Lost and that the Nikki/Paulo controversy sealed it, but the continued treatment of the extras as complete non-entities is aggravating. Particularly bad was ignoring everyone on the freighter at the end, even the 815 survivors from Daniel's first raft trip. Why wasn't anyone and everyone trying to get on board the helicopter? If Jin had gotten up there faster, was he going to cut in front of someone else? If they would have had room for Jin, why didn't they load someone else on there?

I know it's kind of a silly complaint, but when they take it too far it just undercuts the immersive/realistic effect that Lost normally offers, even when there are time traveling bunnies involved.

I do like that Locke/Bentham died before he could tell the Oceanic Six a lot of details about what had happened. While the flash forwards were a great idea and generally used well, I agree with the sentiment that towards the end it was hard to build tension since we knew most of what would happen. It'll be nice to know very little about what's going to happen to the rest of the survivors on the island during the three years or what is involved in getting the Oceanic Six (plus change) back to the island.

Not only have Ben and Charlotte met, but he shot her in the chest! (with Karl's gun, and body armor saved the day yet again) So that adds an extra layer of irony if she's really Annie or her child.

With respect to Charlotte's past on the island: I think Miles, the psychic medium, sensed she had been there in a past life. Remember when Richard visits a young John Locke and asks him to identify which item belongs to him? Richard was hoping Locke was the reincarnation of someone. (Someone from the Black Rock, maybe?)

I don't think this has huge plot implications, but I don't think Claire's lack of an accent was accidental.

When she said "Don't you Dare...." she really emphasized the R in Darrrre. The aussie accent would have made it sound more like Don't you 'day-uh'.

Anyway, probably little consequence.

Well, maybe Jacob is an American. He's the mouthpiece for these apparitions, right? Although, as I recall, Eko's brother managed to hold onto his accent when he appeared. Still, it did seem pretty clearly intentional--it stood out to me when I saw it, and many other commenters have noted the same thing.

Although that time Claire was just a dream, not a "real" ghostly presence, so maybe it's a red herring.

Am I the only one to think that Sun and Penny have teamed up to take down Ben and Widmore?

A bunch of folks were bitching about where Sun could have gotten the funds to buy a controlling interest in Paik, Penny seems like a good source.

I think we have 3 factions going off island.

Ben who wants to get back and hurt Widmore (but not kill because they are each other's constants)

Widmore who is obsessed with controlling the island and it's "magic box"

and Desmond/Penny/O6 working to undermine Ben and Widmore, who have done their level best to destroy them all, and perhaps rescue the Sawyer, Juliet et al on the island.

On Juliet rum guzzling:She is watching smoke rise from the explosion. The smoke would linger and there is no telling how long she was watching it. So it doesn't follow that there is a trouble with the time discrepancy

Could someone explain what the "FDW comments" are? I understand what the literally-frozen donkey-wheel was (although when it was first on screen, I thought it was a ship's steering wheel. Ben: "Don't make me turn this island around!")I'm confused regarding what about the funeral parlor makes those scenes into a Frozen Donkey Wheel. (I'm assuming it's in a podcast or spoiler post, or something?)Thanks for the help.

Rich, every year, Carlton and Lindelof give a special codename to the final scene or scenes of each finale so they can discuss it in general without giving stuff away. One year it was "the bagel," another year "the challah," last year was "the snake in the mailbox," and this year it was "frozen donkey wheel." It's just the first time that the codename has referred to something that was actually in the episode (albeit not the scene in question).

I thought it was a pretty good ep for a season finale. I wasn't surprised by Locke being the one in the coffin since I'd already figured it was him, and I am also curious as to why the O6 wouldn't call him Locke when they were alone. Perhaps they feel they're still under the gaze of the panopticon? If so, who do they think is watching them? Ben? Widmore? Jacob? The island?

"Time-traveling bunnies" is going to make me giggle for a long time go come.

Kevin said... Since the only way on or off the island is by going in one very precise direction, can we assume that Sawyer had a compass with him while swimming for his life?

Unnecessary, really. Frank was almost certainly flying out on that bearing, so if Sawyer swam in a straight line back, he'd be on that bearing.

Jim said... So, what of the time lag phenomenon? Juliet is watching the destruction of the boat in real time (presumably), so, the time curve was, at that moment, flattened, is that right? Or had the boat moved closer to the island's mojo so that this was no longer an issue?

If we assume the time wonkiness doesn't affect radio waves (e.g. the sat-phones, the dead-mans-switch on Keany), it's likely they don't affect light as well. Both are electromagnetic waves, just the frequency differs.

Michael said... Didn't anyone catch the commercial for Octagon Global Recruiting near the end of the show? Their national recruitment drive is this summer in San Diego in July, which - what a coincidence! - is the same dates as the Comic-Con.

I can't believe the poster who thought that this was a better episode than the Looking Glass. First of all, Charlie's death has to count as one of the two or three most significant aspects of this show, and the final scene with Jack and Kate was absolutely devastating. At the end of that episode, I couldn't believe that we were going to have to wait almost a year to find out what happened. This year, the writers telegraphed all of their punches, so there really weren't any big reveals. I still enjoy the series, but I thought that this year jumped the shark during the episode when Michael couldn't kill himself. The writer's strike probably had a lot to do with this, but there was a lot of slapdash writing this season. Look how casually they killed off Rousseau -- they just treated her like a red shirt. You have two seasons left -- don't screw it up, guys...

Wow, I just found something cool, a connection I have not yet heard about. I was reading the Wikipedia article on Stevie Ray Vaughn and came across this passage:

-Double Trouble drummer, Chris Layton, recalls his last conversation with Vaughan backstage. He then remembers Vaughan saying he had to call his girlfriend, Janna Lapidus, in Chicago, before heading out the door to the helicopters, which had been arranged for flight (through Omni Flights) by Skip Rickert, Double Trouble's tour manager.

Of course, Stevie Ray would soon die in a helicopter accident. Could be total coincidence, but I thought it odd that anything associated with a helicopter be connected to that name. Take it for what you will.

just got around now to the finale. first off, michael is deader than dead. and even if he wasn't supposed to be, he will be after this ridiculous interview:

http://www.tvguide.com/news/lost-harold-perrineau/080530-03

what a tool. what a classless way to go out. this show made his career and that's how grateful he is.

anyway, i'm also confused why keamy was set to blow up a boat full of his own people and maybe desmond & sayid. not to mention how a station that is so "deep" can still transmit that far. kind of a silly plot contrivance.

I don't like the theory on her being Annie. She's clearly younger than she should be thought that could be explained away with some time travel while leaving the island.

The accent though... she was too old to have developed the accent so thoroughly.

So here is who Charlotte actually is: Annie's daughter. Possibly Ben's biological daughter. When Annie got off the island to give birth there was a screwup with the time/space what-have-you and Annie went back in time, maybe ten to fifteen years. She settled in england and raised Charlotte as a proper British girl. Charlotte has heard bits and pieces about the island, knows she originated there in some sense, knows about Dharma and wants to get back.

This episode explains Charlotte's "pen name" (Charlotte Staples Lewis, a/k/a C. S. Lewis) being a reference to the author of the Narnia books. IIRC, those books dealt with children returning to a magical place after a period of time.

Did they ever explain why Naomi had that photo of Desmond and Penny? Did Widmore give it to her because he suspected Desmond was on the island (if so, how did he get the photo from Penny)? Or was Naomi a double-agent and secretly working for Penny?

I'm sure that we'll be seeing more of Desmond and Penny in the future:1. Ben wants to find and kill Penny2. Widmore wants to find Penny (Sun says that the O6 weren't the only ones to leave the island)3. Desmond is Farraday's constant (I think Daniel was drawn into the timewarp when the island "moved" but will emerge at a different point)4. The island may need Desmond to return along with the O6 and Walt.

great review.the general consensus seems to be it was a disappointing episode but i tend to disagree. things were wrapped up, some good some bad but it was necessary to answer these things before painting the obvious future scenario in the final scene otherwise it could have got confusing. i can understand peoples disappointment though.

what im interested to see is whether Locke has to go back in the wheelchair when he gets back to the mainland to talk to jack. some of the theories that he's NOT dead but its a set-up with ben to get everyone back also intrigue me.

I don't know. I have rather mixed feelings about the finale, just as I have mixed feelings about the season. There are some aspects of it that I found contrived. Yet, it had its good moments. It's probably the least satisfying of the four finales. At least for me.